Abstract

Alcohol use is cited as a risk factor for exposure to HIV infection through risky sexual behavior, especially among adolescents. From Social Cognitive Theory, positive outcome expectancies about the use of alcohol have often been presented as a critical aspect of alcohol use. Yet little is known about how they might be related to different aspects of HIV risk. Using latent growth curve modeling with data from 292 American Indian youth across seven years, both alcohol use and positive expectancies increased significantly; a lower-risk group showed significantly slower increases in both. Changes in alcohol use and outcome expectancies were significantly interrelated, providing support for reciprocal influence between the two constructs. Positive alcohol outcome expectancies may provide a preventive intervention point worthy of further consideration as influencing alcohol use and lowering HIV sexual risk among adolescents.

Keywords

Associate Professor at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. She received her Ph.D. in Community Psychology from Michigan State University. Her major research interests are adolescent development among minority youth with an emphasis on positive and problem behaviors.

Associate Professor at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan. Her major research interests are in areas of American Indian mental health and services research.

Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan. Her primary research interests are in demography and contextual effects of individual health behavior, with a special emphasis on adolescent development.

The study was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant R01 HD33275 (Mitchell, PI), a supplement to HD33275 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism grant R01 AA08474 (Manson, PI). Production of this manuscript was supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health K02 MH02049 (Mitchell, PI).

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